Day 3 - Around Huy

So, as you saw yesterday, we went to bed at 7pm (we'll, I Clint, went to bed a bit earlier than Melissa...) We woke up to the smell of bacon cooking and the phone rang...but it was dark and we were very confused. I pulled out my bright green ear plugs and asked Megan what time it was, she said 9. Man it's sure dark here in the morning...Megan then said she was cooking bacon "tonight" for breakfast in the morning. We'd only been sleeping for 2 hours...geez.

So at 9 AM, we awoke the this...

Here in Huy, you have a very small narrow trashcan that you set out once a week. to encourage people to recycle (which is free) they weigh your trash (as this man is doing) and you are charged by the kilo...interesting.

So after a very fine breakfast that I'd been thinking about since about 9PM we set off to explore Megan and Clay's hometown.

Huy was formalized as a village back in 1066 although there are records of the town going back to the fifth century. Clay and Megan have a book that features old engravings of Huy and on the cover it has this medieval painting...And this is the view from their apartment...


We walked across the river and saw this modern apartment complex. Apparently the stairwells are so narrow in the buildings here that the only way to get your furniture in our out is by using one of these guys...

One of the first things we noticed here is how many beautiful flowers there are all over town, We snapped this photo as we peaked into someone's backyard.

The next thing we noticed after the pretty flowers was this...

Nuclear power is a big deal here apparently and they need a large supply of water...we've got that here.

We came back and had a wonderful pasta lunch...


Here is my plate when I was finished, you can tell I liked the cheese :).

We then visited the Huy La Collegiate Notre-Dame , the town's cathedral (on the front of the book above) which they started constructing back in 1311. I've never seen a place quite like this. It's probably hard to tell from the pictures but this place just looked really old. There's been a church on this site dating back to the third century AD and the crypt under this building dates from 1066. Wow.

It was very cold and fairly dark so alot of the pictures didn't come out so well. But to think about this place being built in modern days is impressive but to think about the technology and tools these people had to deal with is incredible.

We then went and visited an old monastery that has been converted into the town's museum. Here we are out front.

Then Megan stood on the wall of the monastery and the curator came running out asking for their "monk clothes" back...

We came back to the house and Meg made chicken tortilla soup. Some of their friends here in town have an ailing father so she made soup for them as well. Dad, you'll like this...Clay needed to add a little spice to the soup...look familiar?

Melissa and I struck out on our own for a sunset walk around town...

The view here is so amazing, incredibly picturesqe. Pretty incredible place to live I'd say...

So we'll leave you with this picture. There are signs like this all around, at cross walks...no one, even the locals knows what it means...


Good day!

DAY 1.5-2 TRAVELING & HUY

And we're off! Well almost. Our 3:30 flight from Houston was delayed due to a "loose bolt" in the engine. Sounds like something they might want to fix. After some poor man climbed into the engine to retrieve the bolt, we really were off. The pilot said he was going to "push her hard" to gain some time...let's just say we left 3 hours late and arrived only one hour late.

It was an uneventful night on the plane other than we had to fly way north to avoid Hurricane Bill - we had a layover in Amsterdam and connected on a puddle-jumper to Brussels where we had some folks waiting for us :).

So great to see Megan and Clay after being a part for so long. Megan of course was crying and Clay was just smiling - it was a wonderful reunion.

After pausing next to a Coke machine we had seen earlier in the airport that I am sure no Coke brand executive in Atlanta would approve, we were off to the train.

It's a beautiful ride on the train to Huy (about a one hour trip) with most of the ride along the river Muese. One of the most interesting things I noticed on the low altitude flight from Brussels was how much barge traffic they have on the waterways. Hundreds of canals criss-crossing the verdant landscape. You can see this here:

It was great to catch up on the train. We talked about what had been going on in the States and about what they have going on here. Their dear friends Brent and Daisy are heading back to the States tomorrow (Tuesday) so they'll be spending some time with them while we are here. One of the big reports from America was talking about Michael Jackson - which led us to find out people love him so much here in Europe that he shows up in graffiti. Hmm...which led me (Clint) to start chronicling graffiti...here's a photo of "Big Jo":

I digress...so we get to Megan and Clay's beautiful apartment above a cheese shop and they unpacked the bag of "goodies". Clay got some Oatmeal Cream Pies...

Megan got tons of her baking goods...

And then they found out that all of these items they requested were sent as a gift from Grandma :)...

Notice I haven't said much about sleeping yet...we're about 28 hours into the trip and Mel and I have slept a combined 2 hours...So we go to the Grand Place for a brew...

I had a Westfalle Tripel which is in a special class of beer known as a "Trappist" beer meaning that is is brewed by monks in a very specific method. There are only seven recognized Trappist breweries in the world and six are in Belgium. It was good.

Grand Places are commonplace in Europe and is the central gathering place of the town right in front of city hall - these are super cool. One of the buildings in the Huy Grand Place says it was built in the 1780s...wow. This is a picture of city hall with a "Minute Maid" umbrella in the foreground...

As I mentioned, Brett and Daisy are leaving so we went up to "Old Huy" and to a little green space to have a picnic.

We ate pitas...

They played cards...

While I took a nap in the sun...

Then we went back to Megan and Clay's...this is the last thing Melissa saw at 7PM...

It was a good day...

Day 1 - It's Time to Leave

OK so we've been looking forward to this for a long time. It's time to leave for Belgium to see Megan and Clay, and all of our bags are packed. The blue duffel bag, which by the way, weighs a ton, is filled with all of the requested items from Meg and Clay, so you two get excited! Meg, we are trying really hard to fit this last bag of chips. Oh, and Clay, if you look closely, you can see some of the sweets you wanted peeking out of my suitcase.

We each had our "American" breakfasts of choice...these choices also tell you a lot about each of our different tastes. This morning is a pretty busy one, Clint has to go work the pre-game at the Ballpark, and I am singing with the church choir at the ballgame. Then we race home, get picked up by the Pasche's, and we're off. We will try to update each day with our adventures, so stay tuned!